Everything old is new again

Last fall, a neighbor gave me  Univega Grand Rally from about 1982. It had been sitting behind the storage shed in his back yard for nearly a decade. I was not sure what I was going to do with it, but I knew I had to tear it down to the frame and check it over. The frame turned out to need work. Fortunately, Hal Bielstein, a frame builder from Rapid City, SD, needed a pair of wheels that I had, and I was able to trade a lot of work with him. He modified the frame for 650B wheels with modern rear hub spacing, added numerous braze-on bits and had it painted.

New parts include brakes, cranks, fenders, rims and tires from Velo Orange http://www.velo-orange.com/.

The Brooks B-17 was courtesy of Omar Khiel of Oasis Custom Cycles http://www.oasiscustomcycles.com/.

The rest of the parts were lurking in my garage looking for a home. I built it up the weekend before my vacation and rode it the four miles to work a few times, but today I finally got it out for a little longer ride. 

This is what I mean by a bike for the rest of us. I headed out with a headwind and some spitting rain. The low gears let me slow down to fight the wind and the fenders kept the water away. 

I can only describe the ride as plush. On level road out of the wind, it did not feel a whole lot slower than my skinny-tired Litespeed, but its 38 mm tires just float over rough road.